Research Catalog

Title

Persian Christians at the Chinese court : the Xi'an Stele and the early medieval Church of the East / R. Todd Godwin.

Author

Godwin, R. Todd

Publication

• London : I.B. Tauris, 2018.
• ©2018

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xii, 306 pages : maps; 22 cm

Summary

The Xi'an Stele, erected in Tang China's capital in 781, describes in both Syriac and Chinese the existence of Christian communities in northern China. While scholars have so far considered the Stele exclusively in relation to the Chinese cultural and historical context, Todd Godwin here demonstrates that it can only be fully understood by reconstructing the complex connections that existed between the Church of the East, Sasanian aristocratic culture and the Tang Empire (617-907) between the fall of the Sasanian Persian Empire (225-651) and the birth of the Abbasid Caliphate (762-1258). Through close textual re-analysis of the Stele and by drawing on ancient sources in Syriac, Greek, Arabic and Chinese, Godwin demonstrates that Tang China (617-907) was a cosmopolitan milieu where multiple religious traditions, namely Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism and Christianity, formed zones of elite culture. Syriac Christianity in fact remained powerful in Persia throughout the period, and Christianity - not Zoroastrianism - was officially regarded by the Tang government as 'The Persian Religion'.Persian Christians at the Chinese Court uncovers the role played by Syriac Christianity in the economic and cultural integration of late Sasanian Iran and China, and is important reading for all scholars of the Church of the East, China and the Middle East in the medieval period.--

Series Statement

Library of medieval studies ; 4

Uniform Title

Library of medieval studies ; v. 4.

Subject

• Church of the East > History
• Nestorian tablet of Sian-fu
• Stele (Archaeology) > China > Xi'an Shi
• China > History > Tang dynasty, 618-907
• Iran > Foreign relations > History. > China
• Iran > Church history

Note

• From the author's thesis (Ph.D.)--University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies, 2015.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages [283]-301) and index.

Language (note)

• Includes the Xi'an Stele in Chinese characters in Appendix B.

Call Number

JFD 18-2282

ISBN

• 1784538809
• 9781784538804

OCLC

1028530662

Author

Godwin, R. Todd, author.

Title

Persian Christians at the Chinese court : the Xi'an Stele and the early medieval Church of the East / R. Todd Godwin.

Publisher

London : I.B. Tauris, 2018.

Copyright Date

©2018

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

Library of medieval studies ; 4

Library of medieval studies ; v. 4.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages [283]-301) and index.

Language

Includes the Xi'an Stele in Chinese characters in Appendix B.

Research Call Number

JFD 18-2282